1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproduction control apparatus and a reproduction control method, and, in particular, to a technique that is suitably used to realize synchronous reproduction control of a plurality of pieces of moving image data having different physical characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, among image capturing devices such as a digital video camera, a product capable of transmitting moving image data that is being captured or has been captured to a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, subjecting the moving image data to reproduction processing in the mobile terminal, and storing the moving image data, has appeared.
Typically, moving image data to be transmitted to such a mobile terminal needs to conform to constraints with regard to display resolution of the mobile terminal, a codec and a moving image format to which the mobile terminal is compliant, a processing capability of a central processing unit (CPU), and so on. Thus, it is often the case that moving image data that has a bit rate, a frame rate, resolution, or the like converted from that of the moving image data recorded in the image capturing device is transmitted. In other words, there is a case in which moving image data that has the same content as the moving image data recorded in the image capturing device but has physical characteristics that differ in some respect is recorded in the mobile terminal.
In such a case, nowadays, captured moving image data (original moving image data) is stored not only in the form of a recording medium removed from the image capturing device but also by exporting the captured moving image data to a personal computer (PC) or a digital video recorder (DVR). Alternatively, it is becoming more popular to employ such a storage method in which the captured moving image data is stored in a network attached storage (NAS) or on a cloud server. The captured moving image data is then obtained through a network and reproduced with relative ease.
However, it is not as easy as handling the moving image data recorded in the mobile terminal to search for a desired piece of moving image data through a plurality of pieces of moving image data or to search for a specific scene within the moving image data.
The moving image data recorded in the mobile terminal is often a moving image clip of a favorite scene. Thus, it is desired that the original moving image data, which is higher in quality than the moving image clip recorded in the mobile terminal, can be searched for through a simple operation as with referring to the moving image data recorded in the mobile terminal and can be viewed on a large screen monitor or on a television set. For example, if an operation on the moving image clip recorded in the mobile terminal becomes available as an operation on the original moving image data through remote control, synchronous reproduction control on the moving image clip recorded in the mobile terminal and the original moving image data becomes possible.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-236462 discusses a technique in which, when moving image data is to be reproduced in a plurality of different terminal devices, reproduction control information for one of the terminal devices is shared among the plurality of terminal devices and reproduction timings are thus synchronized.
In addition, an apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-244605 estimates, when identical moving image content is viewed through streaming in a plurality of terminals, reproduction positions in the plurality of terminals and calculates temporal deviations among the terminals. The apparatus then instructs each of the terminals to control the reproduction position, and thus synchronous reproduction among the plurality of terminals is realized.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-284055 discusses a technique for achieving synchronous reproduction by transmitting an instruction for reproducing moving image to a viewing group, in which a plurality of clients that reproduces moving images distributed from a moving image distribution server participates, when notifications of completion of buffering are received from all of the clients.
However, existing techniques suffer from various difficulties when moving image data of which resolution, a bit rate, and so on have been converted from those of the original moving image data is recorded in a mobile terminal or the like so that the moving image data is easily accessible and the original moving image data is recorded in a different location. For example, it has been difficult to quickly search for the storage location of the original moving image data or to search for a particular scene within the original moving image data.
In addition, a case can be considered in which part of the moving image data that has been converted from the original moving image data is recorded in a mobile terminal at hand. In such a case, it has been difficult for a person who is at a location (e.g. remote location) where the person cannot view the reproduced image of the original moving image data to accurately describe a particular scene within the original moving image data to a person who is at a location where the person can view the reproduced image of the original moving image data.